Mary Reid

This is a bit of a personal story, but one that reflects on the wonderful work of some people who work for the Borough.

My mother has Alzheimer's, and she moved into Amy Woodgate House about six months ago. Amy Woodgate is a specialist home for people with dementia. I have known for many years that it has a good reputation, but I have only realised just how special it is since I have had first hand knowledge of it.

At Amy Woodgate they have adopted the Eden Alternative approach as their overall strategy for caring for the residents. This is a programme that was started in the US and, in their words, "The bulk of our work to date has been in de-institutionalizing the culture and environment of today's nursing homes and other long term care facilities."

Here are two of the guiding principles (in American-speak, but you get the picture):

An Elder-centred community imbues daily life with variety and spontaneity by creating an environment in which unexpected and unpredictable interactions and happenings can take place. This is the antidote to boredom.

An Elder-centred community honours its Elders by de-emphasizing top-down bureaucratic authority, seeking instead to place the maximum possible decision-making authority into the hands of the Elders or into the hands of those closest to them.

In practice, it means that everyone who works at the home, plus carers and relatives, are involved in making sure that each person is treated with dignity and is listened to carefully.  For each resident, this is their home; they make their own choices, as far as possible given their condition, about how they spend the day, what time they do things and where they go.

Detailed observations are made of each person's means of communication, gestures, expressions, likes and dislikes, habits and preferred activities. Residents tend not to be very good at conversing with each other, but staff chat, encourage and listen to the residents all the time. There's a lot of hand-holding, good eye contact and hugging.

The home is divided into units of no more than 12 people. Most people tend to keep to the familiar small-scale setting, although they are can easily join others if they wish. Mealtimes are seen and enjoyed as important social occasions. Usually people eat at small tables in a large dining/living area within the unit. 

There is also a full-time activities officer who plans all kinds of trips out, as well as visitors to the home.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that a person with dementia enjoys on average only 2.5 minutes of real social interaction each day. That is so far from what happens at Amy Woodgate.

All the Council Resource Centres for Older People (ie day and residential centres) have adopted the Eden Alternative philosophy.  Their excellent work was recognised recently in a national awards scheme, when they were Highly Commended for Best Workforce Development Practice in the Skills for Care Accolades 2008.

It's great to be able to report, from first-hand experience, that a service offered by Kingston Council is of such high quality.